20 Facts About Paul Warburg

Paul Moritz Warburg was a German-born American investment banker who served as the second vice chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1916 to 1918.

Paul Warburg was an early advocate for the establishment of the US central bank system.

Paul Warburg was born in Hamburg, Germany, to the Paul Warburg family, a German Jewish banking dynasty with origins in Venice.

Paul Warburg's parents were Moritz and Charlotte Esther Warburg.

Paul Warburg was admitted to a partnership in the family firm in 1895.

Paul Warburg remained a partner in the family firm in Hamburg, but he became a naturalized American citizen in 1911.

Paul Warburg was a member of Temple Emanu-El in New York City.

Paul Warburg resigned in September 1914 following his appointment to the Federal Reserve Board, and Jacob Schiff was elected to his seat on the Wells Fargo board.

Paul Warburg became known as a persuasive advocate of central banking in America.

Morgan, credited Paul Warburg with doing "yeoman's service in preaching the doctrines and practices of modern [central] European banking" while all other "friends of sound money" were so occupied with battling against the free silver movement that they gave scant thought to the need for currency reform.

Paul Warburg overcame his reticence in 1906 after attending a dinner party hosted by Professor Edwin Seligman of Columbia University.

Paul Warburg's ideas gained a wider hearing after the panic of 1907 engulfed the country's financial system, and he subsequently published two more articles elaborating and defending his plans, "A Plan for a Modified Central Bank" and "A United Reserve Bank of the United States".

In 1910, Aldrich invited Paul Warburg to attend a secret meeting with other influential bankers on Jekyll Island in Georgia, where the draft of a bill to establish a central bank was worked out.

Paul Warburg organized and became the first chairman of the International Acceptance Bank of New York in 1921.

International Acceptance was acquired by the Bank of the Manhattan Company in 1929, with Paul Warburg becoming chairman of the combined organization.

Paul Warburg became a director of the Council on Foreign Relations at its founding in 1921, remaining on the board until his death.

Paul Warburg was a trustee of the Institute of Economics, founded in 1922; when it was merged into the Brookings Institution in 1927, he became a trustee of the latter, serving until his death.

Paul Warburg made substantial contributions to the Warburg Library in Hamburg, founded by his brother, the art historian Aby Warburg; he gave a hall known as the American House to Heidelberg University; and he made generous donations to the Academy of Political Science in Berlin.

Paul Warburg died at his home in New York City on January 24,1932, and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Paul Warburg's son, James Warburg was a financial adviser to Franklin D Roosevelt in the first years of his presidency, and according to his memoirs, FDR's son, James, lived in a cottage house located on uncle Felix Warburg's New York country estate.